


Red Strung Bow

by nowitsaparty, Thorinsmut



Series: War Dogs [2]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Complete, Cuddling, Gifts, M/M, Memory Loss, Music, Nwalin Week, One Shot, Recovery, Side Story, betrothal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-17
Updated: 2015-05-17
Packaged: 2018-03-31 00:09:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3957079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nowitsaparty/pseuds/nowitsaparty, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thorinsmut/pseuds/Thorinsmut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Nori sat on end of the bed while Dwalin got something out of the closet. A viol, it turned out. It was out of tune, even Nori could tell that much, but Dwalin carefully tended to it and had it singing sweetly beneath the red-strung bow in only a few moments.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The notes of the song Nori could not quite remember trembled across the room, and it was a beautiful song. It was not made for dancing to, it was the kind of music for just listening. It was sweet and it ached and Nori did not know why.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red Strung Bow

They were not the same as they had been, neither of them. Dwalin remembered everything, he knew himself and his life, but his instincts were changed. He had always wanted to protect Nori, but that instinct was stronger now. He found himself evaluating everyone around him as potential opponents, and that was not usually necessary.

Dwalin had changed, but not as much as Nori had. More had been taken from Nori, and less given back. He did not always remember things that Dwalin did.

Nori did not remember the bow. Dwalin took his viol down from the hiding place above his closet a few weeks after he and Nori were finally rejoined. He'd hidden it there because he did not have the heart to play it or _look_ at it when Nori was taken from him. The case had been surprisingly clear of dust, the viol tuned.

"You played for me, sometimes," Nori explained, smiling on the end of the bed. Dwalin did remember that, thinking of it.

"I always loved to play for you," he smiled back - still a wonder they could be together now. His smile widened as he took out the most precious bow in the world, with the sweetest and purest sound. His fingers brushed the softest red strands that strung it, stronger and more resilient than any mere horsehair bow. It was the most intimate of gifts, but when Dwalin looked up from it, there was no recognition in Nori's face. This too. They had taken _this_ from him too.

"You don't remember the bow?" Dwalin knew he was not supposed to push Nori to remember things he did not, but it was the _bow_. Nori's smile faded, shaking his head as he drew back, arms hugging his torso hard. Dwalin forced back everything he wanted to say, words choking thick in his throat. It would hurt Nori. He was not supposed to push him to remember the most beautiful declaration of his love, that Dwalin had clung to even when Nori was lost and the memory of him was as painful to hold as shattered obsidian.

It was not fair. None of it had ever been, but _this_ was not fair.

"I'm all full of holes," Nori whispered. He'd curled in on himself, hugging his knees. "I'm all holes and I can't…"

"No," Dwalin dashed the traitor tears from his eyes and joined Nori on the bed, wrapping himself around his love, setting the bow aside. "It doesn't matter. I have you. You matter so much more," Dwalin assured him. rubbing his face in the same soft strands of hair. He would rather have Nori than a thousand bows. Nori pushed into him, taking comfort from his closeness. Dwalin just held him. He had not hoped he would get to be able to do this, to have Nori. They still had each other. It was enough.

"What is it?" Nori finally asked, gesturing to the bow beside him.

"It doesn't matter," Dwalin repeated.

"I want to know," Nori argued back, holding his ground. "Tell me."

Maybe Dwalin should not have told him, but maybe he was not that good of a Dwarf. He wanted Nori to know, even if he could not remember.

"When we were courting, I proposed to you with knives and a song I composed for you," Dwalin explained. Nori still wore the knives, and he nodded, whistling a few lines of his song.

"I remembered the song. Part of it. You played me the rest," Nori agreed.

"I proposed, and you answered me with the hair for this bow. It's you. Your hair." Dwalin handed it to him, so he could see. Nori's nimble fingers were careful, touching only the wooden parts. It was the kind of gift legends were made of, if Dwalin had been a famed musician instead of choosing the warrior path.

"...I'm not this red?" Nori protested.

"You were," Dwalin assured him. "Your hair was this red when we met. You've gone brown since, but you were." He pressed his face deeper in Nori's hair again. "You're still just as beautiful," he assured. Nori was still perfect, even aged and scarred by his ordeal as a war dog. Dwalin was hardly unmarked himself. Neither of them were the innocents they had been.

Nori was quiet for a long moment, looking the bow over and cuddling into Dwalin's arms.

"You cut my hair?" Nori finally asked, confusion obvious. "No, I wouldn't… I couldn't…"

"Never," Dwalin promised.

" _Tell_ me," Nori ordered impatiently, and Dwalin told all he knew.

 

Nori sprawled on the cushions of Dwalin's bed, long red hair and Dwalin's bite-marks all he wore. He lay back, displaying himself with a small smile on his lips as Dwalin played the viol for him. Nori grew bored eventually, or just horny again, and Dwalin took the hint when he began to rub up and down his thigh with his toes. He set the viol aside to kiss and pet Nori instead, working them both up to another fuck while they still had the house to themselves. Dwalin pinned Nori down in the cushions, wrapping a twist of his hair around his fingers. The bow hair had been under his fingers just moments before, and Dwalin could not help compare. Nori's hair was smooth, but not so smooth it would not make the strings speak, resilient, and of course strong.

Everyone knew a Dwarf's hair made the finest bow, if you could find a Dwarf willing to cut their hair for it. Some of the most famous musicians would not play with anything but a bow of their own or a lover's hair. Dwalin's hair was too rough for it, too short, but _this_ hair…

"You would make the finest bow," he whispered to Nori. It was too intimate, too early in their relationship, but Nori was not offended. He snorted a laugh at Dwalin, pulling him closer.

"You want to talk about viol bows? Right now?" he asked, arching deliciously up against Dwalin.

"Don't have to." Dwalin kissed Nori to cover his embarrassment. In bed probably was not the right time to be thinking about musical instruments. "But you would be better. Better than any other bow in the world. The most perfect, and beautiful…" he punctuated himself with kisses, and Nori laughed his beautiful laugh.

"Don't you dare cut my hair. I'll never forgive you," Nori warned.

"Never," Dwalin promised, stroking the perfect strands over Nori's body. "I could not bear to. Never."

 

Dwalin did not bring it up again, though he did think it. He sometimes ran Nori's soft hair under his fingers and imagined the purity of sound a bow like that could pull from a simple viol's strings. Nori noticed him at it, of course.

Dwalin sometimes told the stories of musicians who attributed the quality of their music to the bow of Dwarven hair they played with. As their relationship grew more serious, as their courting continued, Dwalin began to worry about the calculation he saw in Nori's eyes looking at his bow after those stories.

"Promise you won't cut it," Dwalin finally blurted out. He held Nori's hair all in a knot around his fist after he finished combing Nori's favorite lemon-scented oil through it. He pressed kisses to the back of Nori's neck. "Promise?"

"I would never," Nori promised with his bright golden eyes laughing as though he had a secret.

 

Nori knew Dwalin was going to propose to him, as carefully as Dwalin had tried to keep the secret. He hoped the knives he made were good enough. He'd tried so hard, and he _hoped_ the song he had composed for Nori was good. His parents said it was good, and Balin, but they were family. They might be biased. Fundin was not likely to lie to him, though. She was too blunt for that, but would Nori share her taste?

They both pretended they did not know what was going to happen when Dwalin took Nori out. They found a quiet corner of the mountain and shared a lunch basket, hearty sandwiches and a bottle of fine mead. Nori exclaimed over the knives when Dwalin presented them to him, cooing over the detail work and the balance. He held them to his chest, eyes shining, as Dwalin took out his viol and played for him. Dwalin's fingers were sweaty, his hands shaking, but somehow he managed not to play even one wrong note. He might have stinted a little on some of the flourishes, but it didn't seem like Nori cared. He was smiling at Dwalin as bright as mithril.

"Nori will you… would you… I…" Dwalin tried, setting his viol down and taking a deep breath to try and steady himself. "I love you and… Was it good enough? Will you accept me and…" He'd gotten the song right, but the words were coming out all wrong. He was getting the forms all mixed up, his heart pounding, but Nori silenced him with a kiss.

"Yes." Nori's eyes held a sparkle of tears even as he laughed. "Dwalin, I accept your suit and your gift… though, it might sound better played with _this_." He reached into his pocket and drew out a neatly tied coil, which he pressed into Dwalin's hands.

He recognized it immediately, nothing else in the world had that softness and resilience.

"Nori, your hair!?" Dwalin gasped, clutching it. "You promised you wouldn't cut it? Why?"

"I didn't," Nori was still laughing. He turned his head side to side to show that there were no short spots. "I saved my brushings until I had enough good hairs."

"Your brushings?" Dwalin stroked the infinitely precious bundle. Nori did not shed many hairs, and fewer still that would be long and smooth enough for this. He'd brushed Nori's hair more than enough times to know that. "How long did that _take_?"

"Only a few years," Nori shrugged like it was nothing, still smiling, still laughing - Dwalin's _betrothed_ now and had found a way to give him the best possible gift beyond acceptance of his proposal. He could not do anything but gather Nori up into his arms to hold him.

"Thank you," Dwalin breathed. It was better than he deserved, but Nori always had been. Anyone who looked down at him for coming from a 'poor' family did not understand the wealth of his heart. The beautiful strands so painstakingly gathered for him sang beneath his fingers, as soft as the hair against his cheek when he nuzzled into it.

"I want to play it," he confessed. He had wanted to for so long.

"So let's get it strung!" Nori agreed, "We've done the proposal and gifts thing, is there any reason we can't go to the luthier now?"

"...No," Dwalin decided. There was no reason at all. It had been an untraditionally short proposal excursion, but there was no reason for them to stretch it out longer. They packed the ends of their picnic away and ran together directly to the luthier who had always done Dwalin's family's instruments.

Her mouth fell open when Dwalin gave her the coil of Nori's hair, asking her if she could make a viol bow with it.

"Oh, of course," she breathed. "I have only strung a bow once before with a Dwarf's hair, but it is the same. This will make a beautiful bow." She looked between Dwalin and Nori curiously, likely seeing the blush on Dwalin's cheeks and obviously noting the way Dwalin had his arm around Nori.

"We are betrothed," Dwalin confessed, feeling his cheeks heat further. He could not keep it to himself, though announcing it first to the luthier instead of the family was not exactly traditional. "Nori just now accepted my suit and my song and gifted me this."

"I wish you joy," she smiled, accepting the commission, and Dwalin led Nori home to share the happy news.

 

The bow was the best Dwalin had ever played with, it had the sweetest and purest sound, as though it sang with Nori's own heart. He put it and the viol away, where he could not easily come across them, when Nori was gone. He did not have the heart to play. He could not bear to feel Nori's hair under his fingers while his love was captured, taken from him, and he could not bear to play with a lesser bow. He put it away, hidden up above his closet where he would not accidentally see them.

"It might do you good to play, brother," Balin coaxed. "We could play at duets?"

"I will play when I have him back," Dwalin answered, and threw himself into warrior's training.

 

"I did it, too," Dwalin smiled a little, watching Nori touch his own hair and the bow hairs, comparing them. "I was not myself, but I still brought you home and played for you."

"It _is_ my hair," Nori mused. Dwalin's heart dared to lift slightly, to hope the story had jogged some memory free in Nori's mind, until Nori looked up at him and he could see the sorrow in his eyes. "I am glad _you_ remember," Nori said, very quietly. He handed the bow back, and Dwalin wrapped his own bigger hands around Nori's as he accepted it.

"We can make new memories. Together," Dwalin promised him. "That's worth more than anything else." He squeezed Nori's fingers and Nori smiled at him, just a little.

"Will you play for me?" Nori asked.

"Always," Dwalin promised, and lifted the most precious bow in all the world to the viol strings to play the sweetest of songs for his love.

**Author's Note:**

> In researching this side story - I discovered that unlike a violin bow, a viol bow is held with fingers on the hair to control the tension.


End file.
